Another Again
by Seren-chan
Summary: "Korra, I cannot return to you what was never taken...you just have to find it again. You are no less of an Avatar than you were before. You are no less of the person you were before." Why did her past self have to be so cryptic? Book One Alternate Ending. The beginning to recovery.


Korra can barely feel the cold wind sting her cheeks as she rides on Naga's back. They reach the cliff edge and she tugs on Naga's collar to make her stop. She climbs off her friend, absent mindedly pats her head, and continues her walk to the edge.

All Korra can feel now is the emptiness that threatens to devour her completely from the inside out. And if she's honest with herself, she's not entirely sure if she can deal with it beyond today. She stops and looks below. She sees the sea, the one she had come to miss in the duration of her stay in Republic City, crash harshly against the jagged points of ice that reach the surface. She lets the nostalgia and homesickness she's felt for awhile give the final push to prompt her tears. It's cathartic, yes, but_ it's not enough_. She almost begins to hate herself because what she does is never enough.

'Look where it's gotten me now. Some Avatar I turned out to be.' A glance at the water below. It's almost hypnotic. Korra takes a step closer. She wishes it could sweep her away like that, from all her pain and problems. A (dangerous) thought enters her mind:

'Maybe it could.'

And all she'd need is one more step...but before she can continue that throught process, she hears the soft crunch of snow under feet. She looks behind her from the corner of her eye. She sees robes in the color of red and yellow.

"Tenzin, I need you to leave me alone right now."

"Strange, since you you called me here." She cranes her head to fully look at him. Her eyes widen in disbelief.

"Aang!" she shouts as she scrambles to face him. "How?"

"You were at your lowest point, even after opening yourself up spiritually. I'm here, more or less, to help you."

"Help me...?" she contemplates briefly before her face brightens. "Can you restore my bending?"

He smiles at her solemnly, at the hope that appears tenatively on her face. "Not quite." And just like that, it's gone.

"But why won't you return to me my bending?" she tries to choke back her tears. "How can I be the Avatar if I don't have all my bending?"

"Korra, you called me here because while you have reached your spiritual awareness, the pain you feel from the precieved loss of your bending threatens to break it again. I could very well restore your bending. Right now. But I cannot return to you what was never taken." She opens her mouth to interject-_something was taken from me what are you talking about_-but he's not finished.

"Tell me, Korra, would you have really done it?" His eyes wondering to the cliff's edge are enough for her to know what he's hinting at. She feels sick.

"No." she says quickly, "I wouldn't have." A pause as she refuses to meet his eyes while he looks her over.

"All the same," he says, considering his next words, "you are no less of an Avatar than you were before. You are no less of the person you were before." She looks up at him at that.

"Besides..." he says beeming, "you'll be the first airbending Southern Water Triber!"

"...That doesn't make me feel better, Aang. At all."

"Weeeeeell...wanna see my marble trick?"

"Nope." He's pouting.

"Che, you're no fun. Tenzin must be rubbing off on you. That boy never smiles enough..." he says, trailing off for a moment before remembering she's still there. "But I digress. Korra. Your bending is still there. You just have to find it again."

Korra stares at him incredulously. She just has to fnd it? What nonsense is that? Doesn't he see that she's broken _right now_? But before she can ask him more, he's gone and she's alone on the cliff's edge. Again. She kicks at the ground in blind frustration, scattering the snow around her. "So helpful." she mumbles before kicking more snow. "...Not."

Why did her past self have to be so cryptic? Why couldn't everything, just this once, be simple? She plops down in the snow again and turns her gaze to the sea. The sun paints both water and sky with its parting of pinks and yellows on the horizon. Despite her feelings now, the sun will still rise the next day and she will be forced to adapt to her current situation. She finds herself thinking of Aang's words again.

_"You are no less of the person you were before."_

_"You just have to find it again."_

Nothing lasts forever. So that means her pain shouldn't last either.

"This is hitting bottom, yeah? Can't go any lower." she whispers before getting up and making the ride back home.

Maybe one day, she will see this ache, this emptiness, disappear too.

She's just gotta hold on for a little longer.  
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A/N: I do plan on continuing this fic by showing Korra's recovery. Perhaps she'll be able to claim true mastery over an element. Until I crank out the next chapter, give me your thoughts and R+R!


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